In case you need to kill some time before the game today
From the Nets message board
i think a nets "win" this season will be losing by around 10. this game was never in doubt for a second, gasol didnt even try and they didnt need him to. how many games will we see the nets be down by 16-20 to 20-30 points and then in the fourth when the game is over they cut it to 8 or something to make the final score look much better than what actually happened. the sad part is this team looks like a team that needs a #1 or #2 pick to rebuild themselves. the boston trade was good in theory, or great in theory if there were just no draft picks involved. unfortunately that will go down as probably the worst trade in nets history, or at least second to dr j, and one of the absolute worst trades in the last 20 years of the entire nba. i think just about all nets fans would accept a horrible horrible season if we actually had our pick coming up.
So happy that the Nets and Billy King will be responsible for launching the next Celtics dynasty. THis is going to be a long three years plus.
The Celtics' path to rebuilding is the complete opposite of the Nets, thanks to BK
The Nets are currently forced to try and build a team through free agency because they’ve exhausted their ability to built it through the draft or through trades. The Celtics meanwhile, can build their team in every single way possible. They can get talent through the draft thanks to the Nets, they have cap space for free agency and the wins to be a reasonable destination, and they have tons of assets to make a trade with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owzhYNcd4OM
I've actually never thought about it this way, but that last quote is actually spot on. With our current vast amount of options, we can rebuild in any possible way that presents itself.
That's the big advantage of our rebuild so far - while we still lack that key prospect that other teams would be drooling to get, we have the flexibility to make basically any kind of trade imaginable. Whether the other team wants expiring or nonguaranteed deals of any size, longer-term contracts with favorable salaries, RFAs, rookie deals, draft picks of any kind, etc etc...we've got em. Plus the cap space (though everybody's going to have that) plus the picks of other teams.
It's a pretty sweet spot - we need some things to break our way but there are a LOT of options for how that could happen.
And that's why I've been very pleased with this rebuild so far. Ainge knows things can change in a second in the NBA, so he set us up to have a hand in all the pots. We can lure FA's (in theory) because we have a ton of cap space, an excellent coach, and a young up and coming team that's generating a fair amount of buzz. We have young prospects that have bright (yet, undefined) futures in this league, we have a ton of draft picks coming up to add/trade. All three major avenues to improvement (Youth/Draft, FA, Trade) we have a pretty good hand to play at their table.
What else could you really ask for? Were as well set up as anyone in the league, and while it's easy to underestimate the value of a good culture/coaching/owners/executives in the long run, we also have those critical ingredients. Right now were one offensive force in the starting line-up away from contending in the East. It's entirely possible that we could win 45 or more games, make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and receive at top 5 pick from the Nets, on top of the Mavs pick which is set up just right for the late lottery too. A lot of other teams fans (Go read a Nets forum for instance) would die to be in the position were in. As long as you've got a hand to play, something is bound to eventually fall our way.